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Even with a lineup featuring Martina McBride and Big & Rich, it’s another act that has pushed Stampede officials to be “giddy like a schoolgirl” about the summer concerts.

Anthea Dreisbach, general manager, and John DeWitt, in his first year booking the acts as the night show chairman, didn’t necessarily want their description of the summer lineup publicized. Then again, they both said it more than once.

Booking Jake Owen will do that to you.

Owen already has a handful of No. 1 hits in his young career, so he’s an established artist but he’s also still up-and-coming.

By summer, Stampede officials expect him to be on the short list of the hottest names in country.

Billy Currington, a longtime country artist who released his first album in 2003 and continues to put out albums that sell well, rounds out the scheduled shows.

The Stampede is working on booking a fifth concert that should be a classic rock band.

Other favorites, including a day of Latino music, will also take place, and the Free Stage should feature at least three national acts along with close to 60 local bands.

One of those is Western Underground, a band that will play the stage for the third time and acts a tribute band to Chris LeDoux, who formed Western Underground before his death in 2005.

It’s tricky to book shows that will fill the arena and yet won’t bust the budget of either the Stampede or its customers.

That was especially difficult this year, as many big names are charging as much as double what they wanted last year, DeWitt said.

The Stampede could pay more for an act but would have to raise ticket prices to do so, something Dreisbach wanted to avoid.

“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “We wanted to make sure our concerts remained affordable while bringing the kind of shows people expect.”

They think they’ve got that perfect combination with Owen, who reminds DeWitt of Luke Bryan. Bryan came a couple years ago at just the right time, just when he had hit it big, and yet they booked Bryan before he hit, when he was a little cheaper.

In other words, they bought low and sold high.

Yet Owen isn’t even as much of a gamble as the stock market. His stock is high. He’s already had more No. 1 hits than Bryan did when he performed at the Stampede.

McBride and Big & Rich, who will appear with Cowboy Troy, both have had long careers, but they’re both releasing new material soon.

McBride, who has performed successfully for two decades and won many CMA and ACM awards, should release her new album, “Eleven,” in March.

“She’s a class act all the way,” DeWitt said, “and she puts on a real good show.”

Big & Rich’s peak came in the mid-2000s, with the band’s breakthrough hit, “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy,” released in 2004.

The band took a hiatus after the 2007 release, though Big Kenny and John Rich enjoyed fruitful solo careers both singing and writing for others (Rich especially), until 2012, when they released “Hillbilly Jedi.” The band is working on a new album and should have a song out by the summer.

“I think it’s good they are still releasing new material,” DeWitt said, “but really, we got Big & Rich for the party, party, party.”